


If We Go Down, Then We Go Down Together

by TheAshla (cannedpeaches)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: A New Dawn - John Jackson Miller, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, I swear, no one dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2017-09-21
Packaged: 2019-01-03 19:57:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12153723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cannedpeaches/pseuds/TheAshla
Summary: When the timing is critical, Kanan says what he needs to say.





	If We Go Down, Then We Go Down Together

If he was going to die, Kanan Jarrus figured that he couldn’t be dying in more pleasant company.

 

As he squinted at the control panel for the airlock, Hera Syndulla paced behind him. She’d started looking for an escape route as soon as the pirates had locked the door to their freighter’s cargo hold. Which had been… Kanan wasn’t sure how many minutes ago. He and Hera were running out of time; the pirates would be off the ground and free of atmosphere soon, and as soon as that happened, Kanan and Hera would be spaced.

 

“There _has_ to be a way out of here,” she said, not for the first time.

 

“Well, they don’t usually have multiple exits in mind when they’re building ships like this,” Kanan said, pulling some wires out of the panel. He stared at the jumbled mess in his hands for a moment and swore. “Still can’t raise Chopper?”

 

“I’ve got my distress beacon going continuously, but I think they’re jamming the signal,” Hera said. She finally looked at him. “Any luck over there?”

 

He waved the bundle of wires at her. “You’re good at hot-wiring; help me out, will you?”

 

Hera strode over to him, snatched the wires out of his hands, and began tracing them back to their sources in the panel. Kanan leaned against the wall, watching her work.

 

It was supposed to be a milk run. Of course, Kanan was beginning to question whether Hera knew what “milk run” meant. The plan had been simple: Go to Corellia. Leave the _Ghost_ at the spaceport. Pick up some speeder bikes to travel to the coordinates Fulcrum had given them, which pointed them to a rocky region Hera’s ship would never have been able to navigate, even given her skills. Pick up the supplies hidden in a cave there. Return to the _Ghost_ , drop the supplies off in a locker at the spaceport on Dantooine. Simple.

 

Except when they got the cave, they found that pirates had already claimed the hidden crates. A _lot_ of pirates. Kanan and Hera had put up a decent fight, but in the end, they had still been dragged back to one of the pirate ships, and they were still trapped in the cargo hold, waiting for take-off so they could be shot out of the airlock into space.

 

“This is hopeless!” Hera threw the ball of wires down in disgust.

 

Kanan grabbed her hands. “C’mon, hopeless? For you? No way.”

 

“That panel has been rewired so many times that nothing about it makes sense,” Hera said. She looked up at him, her eyes round. “I’m sorry.”

 

“For what?”

 

She mouthed wordlessly, then shrugged. “For getting you into this mess.”

 

“I’ve been in worse messes.”

 

“Really,” Hera said flatly. She raised an eyebrow, and Kanan almost laughed, that she could still sass him at a time like this.

 

Kanan shook his head ruefully; he’d almost died so many times, he was probably about due for the real thing. But he didn’t say that to Hera. Instead, he told her, “I didn’t have you with me most of those times.”

 

Hera gave a short laugh, but her gloved hands were clutching his fingers. That was about as far as Hera went when it came to showing weakness, but Kanan still had to swallow back the lump of grief that had formed in his throat. He touched his fingertips to her face, ran his thumb along her cheekbone.

 

“Hera, I--”

 

“Kanan,” she said. Her voice was half warning, half hope.

 

But at that moment, the ship gave a violent lurch, slamming Kanan against the wall behind him, and Hera into his chest. Stars danced before his eyes; it was a moment before he realized the power had cut out, too, leaving them in darkness.

 

 _Ah, what the hell_ , he thought. He approximated where Hera’s head was, grabbed her face, and brought his lips crashing down onto hers.

 

It was a quick kiss, and a mostly chaste one, and Kanan was mostly grateful that he’d managed to aim correctly in the dark. But he could still feel Hera’s heart pounding against his chest. He couldn’t see her face.

 

“I love you,” he said. Speaking the words left him suddenly hollow inside.

 

The ship gave another, softer jerk, and Kanan knew they were in the air. It wouldn’t be long now. The lights came back up, showing Hera’s flushed face, her glassy eyes.

 

“I know you do,” she murmured. She tightened her grip around him and leaned her head against his chest.

 

He held her to him, gently stroking her stiff lekku with one hand. This was how he was going to go out.

 

 _At least you told her_ , one side of his brain said, trying to comfort him.

 

 _Yeah, and a lot good that did_ , said the other side.

 

Kanan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. As he exhaled, Hera fisted a hand in his hair and pulled him back down to her mouth.

 

She kissed him furiously, and the torrent of pent-up emotion in his chest answered. Teeth, tongues, lips--everything was battling each other. At some point, his hair came loose. At some point, he wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her flush against his body. At some point, his shirt came untucked from his pants, and Hera’s hot, now-gloveless hands were at the small of his back.

 

As the ship broke atmosphere and slowed, preparing for the jump to hyperspace and their inevitable end, they broke apart. Kanan moaned, feeling like a piece of him was lost.

 

“At least you gave me something to remember you by,” he said weakly.

 

Hera’s eyes searched his face, then she lifted her chin, as if daring him. “I love you, too,” she said, her voice rough.

 

Kanan’s heart dropped out of him.

 

He made to dive in toward her face again, but he was interrupted by a clicking, mechanical noise.

 

The airlock was opening.

 

Kanan bent his forehead to Hera’s, her body beginning to shake as the cold of space entered the ship. If this was the last thing he’d ever experience--

 

And then they were being pulled, the cold enveloping them both. Kanan kept his arms wrapped tightly around Hera and his eyes screwed shut; she had already buried her face in his chest. His only comfort was that it would be over soon.

 

But then his back hit something hard, and he heard a sound like a hatch being locked. His eyes flew open.

 

The ceiling of the _Phantom_ had never looked more beautiful.

 

But the view was almost immediately interrupted by a bulky orange astromech leaning into his field of vision. Chopper waved his arms at Kanan, garbling.

 

“About damn time,” Kanan snarled. He looked down at Hera, who had a dazed expression on her face. “Are you okay?” he asked her.

 

“Nothing a hot shower won’t fix,” she said. She stared up at Chopper. “How did you get my signal?”

 

 _Bwap bwap burrrrg_ , Chopper said.

 

“You don’t know either?”

 

Kanan snapped his fingers as he and Hera sat up. “When the ship went dark--must have been a power surge. They probably had to reset the signal jammer, so for that amount of time, your beacon went through.”

 

Hera rubbed her face with her hands. “Well, that was lucky.”

 

Kanan snorted. Then he bit his lip. “Speaking of the ship going dark…”

 

“No,” Hera said immediately, standing and going to the _Phantom_ ’s controls. She plunked down heavily in the pilot’s seat, checking everything over intently, even though Chopper had clearly set an autopilot course back to the _Ghost_.

 

Kanan put a hand on the back of her chair and stared down at her incredulously. “‘ _No_ ’?”

 

“Nope,” Hera said, not looking at him.

 

Kanan realized his jaw was hanging open and shut it. “So, we’re just not--”

 

“No, we’re not.”

 

“Fine,” Kanan said, throwing up his hands. He could still feel her lips on his. They’d been surprisingly soft.

 

He made his way to the jump seats in the back and sat down heavily, crossing his arms. “Women,” he muttered, earning himself a swift whack from Chopper.

 

As he swore and clutched his knee and Chopper laughed, he could have sworn he heard Hera say, “I meant it, though.”

 

“What?” Kanan called up to her.

 

“Nothing, luv.”

 

 _Luv_. That was a new one.

 

By now, he knew Hera like the back of his hand: She’d thrown him a bone, just to get him off her case.

 

But that didn’t mean he couldn’t be happy about it.

**Author's Note:**

> Maybe not my best work, but I couldn't resist this fun, trope-tastic prompt my friend gave me.
> 
> And by friend, I mean co-host on my podcast! Come [talk to us](http://www.bookwarspod.com) about the canon Star Wars novels. We just read _A New Dawn_ , and the Kanan comics are coming in a episode dropping next week.


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